ANALYSIS
HER Majesty has always indulged her favourite son Prince Andrew and has done her best to protect him amid public anger over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
She gave Andrew more attention as a child than she did to his older brother and sister.
Charles and Anne had suffered at times, because of the burdens of state placed on the Queen’s shoulders at such a young age, according to royal insiders.
For years, she fought to give Andrew a senior role in the Firm.
She made him her UK Special Representative for Trade and Investment from 2001, until he was forced to stand down in 2011 as storm clouds gathered over his friendship with US financier Epstein.
In 2015, at a time when Britain’s newspapers were full of stories about the growing Epstein scandal, the Queen promoted Andrew to the rank of Vice Admiral.
But this time, both appear to have realised that a further promotion would provoke outrage.
Andrew, it has to be remembered, has not been charged with any offence, let alone found guilty.
Conflicted
But he has been convicted in the court of public opinion for a succession of lapses in judgment that, in the view of many, have made him unfit for duty representing the Queen or the United
Kingdom. His mother has shown her loyalty to him by ensuring he remained in the bosom of the family at Sandringham at Christmas.
And Andrew has accompanied her to church before and since in the full glare of cameras.
Conflicted between her motherly love and the need to act in the interests of the monarchy, she has tried to steer a middle path.
She has ordered him to stand down from public life for the foreseeable future, but is offering him the hope of a way back if he can successfully show that he has no case to answer.
This latest decision to halt his promotion to Admiral smacks of a decision taken by the Queen on the advice of her senior courtiers.
But officially, at least, it is Andrew’s decision to relinquish the appointment until such time as he returns to public duties.